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Aerith Crawraek
Aerith Crawraek was a Calatian and the youngest member of House Crawraek in the Crawraek Dynasty. Following the collapse of the Dynasty, Aerith would go on to found the Calatian Trade Organization and Dark Ainae after her supposed death. Eventually giving rise to the Calatian Confederation. History Early Life Aerith was born in late 81 BTP as the second daughter to Emperor Orrian Crawraek. However unlike her older sister Ayla, Orrian was Aerith's sole parent and was more or less a genetic clone. From a young age, Aerith was an avid shapeshifter to the point it was common for her to injure herself from overworking herself. Unlike her older sister, who apprenticed her father's political life, Aerith was more interested in fighting and dueling. Leading to her desire to fight on the front lines, much to the displeasure of her Father, stepparent, and sister. Procyon Invasion At the age of 10, Aerith's homeworld came under assault from the newly-contacted Procyon Expanse. During the attack, with Calatia's fleet reduced to splinters by the Procyon Armada, Aerith and Ayla, along with thousands of civilians, were evacuated from Calatia IX's capital, Taenan, while Orrian stayed behind to orchestrate what was left of the defense forces. Not long after the evacuation, the capital was destroyed by a Procyon kinetic bombardment weapon, killing Orrian and most of the Dynasty's leadership and reducing Taenan to rubble. As the dust and emotion cleared, the title of Empress fell on Aerith's 13 year old sister, Ayla. With no chance in a straight up fight with the Procyons, the Crawraeks and the rest of the population retreated into the jungles. Guerrilla Fighter By the time the Procyons made planetfall, much of the Calatians' infrastructure had been sabotaged in a scorched earth strategy. With little value within Calatian cities and towns, the Procyons turned their attention towards trying to root the population from the jungles. While Aerith was kept under watch by her own guard, she expressed her desire to join one of the Dynasty's skinwalker divisions: Calatian infantry that forego all weapons and armor in favor of using their shapeshifting abilities to attack enemies. When this request was denied, Aerith took things into her own hands, sneaking away from her detail into the jungles. In the cover of night, and without a shred of clothing, Aerith launched a solo raid on the occupied town of Jankhir. When she returned to camp come morning, she was covered in the blood of an entire Procyon marine platoon. While her sister was quick to reprimand her for the attack, she couldn't deny her effectiveness, as she had carried out the attack without the Procyons raising an alarm. For 4 years, the Crawraeks would continue to live in the jungles. While Aerith was still barred from joining the skinwalkers, she couldn't resist the occasional slaughter of a Procyon patrol. As 67 BTP rolled around, the Procyons approached the Crawraeks with a peace treaty that would guarantee the Crawraek Dynasty some autonomy, in exchange for becoming a Procyon satellite state. With the Calatians feeling war exhaustion, and the Procyons having a larger adversary to deal with, Ayla accepted the treaty, allowing the population to return to their cities to rebuild. Execution When Aerith turned 18, she was permitted to join one of the Dynasty's top skinwalker divisions, rising through the ranks with ease. Over the years, while she mostly dealt with criminals and pirates, she had hoped she could eventually lead her people to rise up against the Procyons, who were making their presence more and more known within the Dynasty. When she turned 25, Aerith opted to stop her aging. She continued this for 12 years before falling for the heir to the neighboring Aludran throne: Imyll Shade. While Aerith had multiple lovers in her years, Aerith considered Imyll "the one" and resumed her aging process to stay the same age. With most of the damage rebuilt from the Procyon invasion and the Dynasty's economy recovering, the Crawraeks began looking towards the Expanse, which was showing signs of considerable unrest. Finally, in 39 BTP, the Terran Empire launched a surprise invasion of the Expanse. With the Expanse weakened and the Empire on their doorstep, the Crawraek sisters opted to approach the Imperial King to pledge supplies in return for independence after the fall of the Expanse.The king agreed, but while victory seemed certain for the Empire, events resulted in the death of the king and the retreat of the Empire's forces. An investigation launched by the Procs quickly found the Calatians responsible for supplying the Empire. In the dead of night, Procyon marines stormed the Calatian palace, capturing Aerith, Ayla, and her partner and two sons. Knowing they were about to be beheaded, Ayla warned Aerith of their coming fate, pleading for her sister to use her abilities to escape, as she herself couldn't. While Aerith seemed content to die with her sister, she agreed, fearing complete expanse control of the region. That morning, to Aerith's sorrowful relief, she was the first to be executed by beheading, being spared the sight of the deaths of her sister, brother-in-law, and nephews. However unbeknownst to the Procyons, Aerith had spent the night before slowly moving her brain into her chest, thus surviving her execution. After regrowing her head and slipping away from the Procs, Aerith adopted a new appearance and alias. The CTO With the Dynasty now under full Procyon control and with a thirst for revenge, Aerith began plotting potential ways to retake the region, however with the remaining Calatian fleet and army disbanded, the options were slim. All while her lover Imyll was appointed as the region's "puppet leader". In her first years, Aerith made the decision to take multiple tours of duty in both the Procyon Expanse and Terran Empire in attempts to know the inner-workings of the two factions. Serving until she would eventually be "killed in action" before returning to service under a new alias and appearance. It was during one of these tours that she hatched her grand plan after witnessing an Imperial rebellion in which colonists armed their merchant ships to become formidable warships. Upon faking yet another death and returning to Calatia, she adopted the alias "Arcaena Venlynn" as a blue-skinned Calatian. From there, she used what was left of her family's fortune to found the Calatian Treasure Organization and purchase shipyards at Calatia, Wezen, and Deneb. Approaching these shipyards, Aerith presented her fleet plan: building a fleet of merchantships with the express purpose of being able to be converted to warships at a later date. With a fleet on order, and unemployed sailors lining up for jobs with the company, the CTO was operational in no time, and making trade runs and treasure voyages deep into the etherium even beyond the Empire's eastern borders. As Aerith devoted more time to these activities, she began to fear for Imyll. As while the Procs kept her in a seat of power and kept a close eye on her, her position was mostly a honorary title, as her decisions mattered not to the Procyon council. Fearing they may discover her survival through Imyll, Aerith opted to cut contact with her to keep her safe and out of the loop of her rebellion, much to Imyll's dismay, but acceptance. After spending one last night together, Aerith left, however without her knowledge, Imyll had allowed herself to become pregnant to remember her lover and keep her bloodline alive. The Dark Ainae In the years following, Aerith would make contact with several officials within the Expanse's military. The first of which was Caeda Liaric, a Calatian ground lieutenant within the Expanse. With little convincing, Caeda joined Aerith's movement as a spy within the Expanse's ranks. To keep things under wraps, Aerith adopted the name "Dark Ainae" for her organization, being known simply as the Alpha Ainae. Following Caeda was Chondrichite Rear Admiral Kainehe Alana, who at the time, was in command of the PSR Neutron Claw, attacking pirate strongholds within the Expanse. Hoping to seed piracy within the Expanse, Aerith relayed the now-spy Kainehe's plans to different pirate clans to help them evade detection. Finally on Aerith's council shopping list was the Lycan Captain, Odakota. The Captain of a Procyon Sloop-of-war strike force, Odakota was resistant to Aerith's offer due to his treatment by his culture for not only being a Lycan, but a two-headed mutant. However after considerable convincing, Odakota joined the Dark Ainae. Widower Following the founding of the Dark Ainae, Aerith targeted two startup companies: Adharan Arms Works and Aludran Combat Automation. The latter being a robotics lab hoping to challenge the juggernaut manufacturers within the Procyon military. After being rejected by the Expanse military after a demonstration of the company's DCR and DMAHK line, Aerith was quick to commission the ACA to manufacture robots for the CTO's security forces. Likewise, Adharan Arms was rejected military contract from the Expanse. The CTO and Dark Ainae scooped up the AAW and contracted them to build weapons. With a sizeable fleet, troops, robots, and weapons and armor, Aerith had great confidence in her option. However her confidence was short lived once the news reached her that Imyll had been supposedly killed in a pirate attack on her ship. This enraged Aerith as it became obvious that it was not an independent pirate clan, but privateers hired by the Expanse. Dropping everything, Aerith began her investigation into her death, learning that the Expanse's regional overseer had ordered her assassination in an attempt to stop the region from gaining political influence, and hoping her daughter to be politically inept. Despite feeling betrayed Imyll had a daughter in her absence, Aerith immediately infiltrated the Procyons' regional headquarters, capturing and torturing the overseer before killing him and mimicking him, hoping to find the privateers responsible as well. However in a shock twist not long after, the overseer's bodyguard would attempt an assassination attempt on her, not knowing he had been killed and replaced with a Calatian capable of surviving said assassination. Only after subduing the assassin did she learn that the bodyguard had been replaced as well by, of all things, a 15 year old Calatian-Aludran girl. As Aerith interrogated the girl, she learned her name: Arryn Shade. As if she was hit by a truck, Aerith realized not only was she was Imyll's daughter, but Aerith was the father. After learning that Arryn had already taken care of the privateers, Aerith offered for her to join the Ainae, a position she took with joy. The Ironclads As Aerith returned to the Ainae and Arryn returned to her new role as the region's ambassador, she received information from informants on Aludra that the Procyons had taken control of the privately-run shipyards in Aludra and cordoned off the area into a top secret facility. While this was alarming in and of itself, it was followed by another takeover at a plasma cannon arms factory and shipyard in the northern regions, albeit less guarded than the Aludra facility. It wasn't until a few years after this that these factories started seeing activity. In addition, the Expanse began heavy mining operations in the region, mining dark matter aggressively and relocating colonists away from these installations. Beginning an investigation, Arryn accompanied Aerith in infiltrating the northern facility, as external espionage gave no clues. Upon entering the facility, they were faced with a massive shipbuilding facility now dedicated to building Ironclad Cruisers. With attempts to access the Aludra facility deemed too dangerous, the Ainae was left to ponder why a new generation of warships were being built in secret and were being stealthfully shipped to the northeastern regions of the expanse. It wasn't until Aerith was contacted by Odakota that she started getting answers. Odakota had been chosen among many top Procyon admirals to commandeer a vessel known simply as a "Dreadnought". After being assigned to the Gargantuan, Odakota made note that almost all of these vessels were being ordered to the northern frontier of the Empire. While Aerith immediately suspected a Procyon invasion into the Empire, she was shocked to hear that the Procyons and Empire were beginning talks to end the ongoing war and begin a peace treaty. The Treaty With more questions than answers and Odakota under radio silence, Aerith began to fear for her movement. All of her pieces were in place, and now she was waiting for the right moment for the Expanse to either have too much on their plate, or be weak enough they could secede without much bloodshed. The Empire and Procyons signing a peace treaty was not good for her plan. By the time she was able to regain contact with Odakota, this became much worse. Reports came in that the ironclad fleets were ordered to actively attack Imperial colonies and outposts, and scuttle if there was a risk of the Empire discovering their origin. Meanwhile, with spies within the Empire reporting that almost 70% of the Royal Navy was mobilizing toward the northern frontier and the Diplomatic Fleet was en route to Corona V, Aerith soon realized the Procyons' plan, and the fact the Diplomatic Fleet was carrying siege weapons only confirmed that the Procyons were going to attack the unguarded parliament ship. And there was nothing she could do to stop it. The Battle of Parliament Without contacts within Parliament, and none in the Empire that would be credible to the government, Aerith opted instead to ship out for Corona V immediately with a group of elite skinwalkers she dubbed "Kaiju Squad". Upon arriving at Parliament aboard the SS Normandie, Aerith made quick work to attempt to plant herself within the Queen's guard. However what she found instead was the head of the queen's guard bound and gagged in a closet. Learning that another Calatian acting as a Procyon agent was mimicking him and had sent a majority of the royal guard away from the palace, Aerith and Kaiju Squad stormed the throne room disguised as guards, gunning down the Procyon agent. With the diplomatic fleet beginning its attack and the unexpected appearance of pirate ships, Aerith made attempts to get the queen to safety before resorting to dragging her out of the room shortly before it was destroyed by a star mortar shell. With Procyon marines boarding the palace, Aerith inevitably became the queen's de facto bodyguard as the rest of the guard and Kaiju Squad repelled the Procyons. It wasn't until Aerith started regenerating wounds that the queen realized that Aerith was not only not one of her guards, but not a human as well. When confronted, Aerith simply mentioned that it was in her best interest she remain alive. As the last of the Procyon ships were destroyed and captured, Aerith deposited the queen with the remaining guard before slipping away from the palace with the rest of the squad by mimicking space mantas. During their retreat, the came across three retreating ironclads: the cruisers Sheer Razor and Wind Dagger, as well as the destroyer, Revenge. After boarding and taking command of the Sheer Razor, Aerith directed the flotilla to the Ainae's headquarters, where they would be captured. The Confederation Following the battle, the Procyons were forced into harsh peace negotiations. What was originally a nightmare turned into the perfect opportunity to put Aerith's plans into motion. Upon recalling her council and fleet back to Calatia, a majority of the CTO's ships were quickly refitted into warships. In addition, captured ships by Odakota and Kainehe were repainted to the colors of the new Calatian Confederaton: White, green, brown, and black. In an orchestrated attack, the new confederation armada lashed out at Procyon military installations in the region. In Taenan, Aerith gathered a force consisting of Kaiju Squad, 10 armored walkers, and an entire battalion to march on the Crawraek palace, easily retaking the palace along with the planet. With the Procyon military and government forced from the region, Aerith approached Arryn with the offer to run the state. While Aerith still had title to the throne, Arryn had more political experience in her 20 years than Aerith did in her 90 years. Despite not able to adopt a political personality, Arryn accepted the position, representing the union of the two most powerful political familes in the old Crawraek Dynasty. With the Confederation its own sovereign state, Aerith appointed herself as leader of its military, dedicating herself to defending it at all costs. Physical Aerith stands roughly 6' 5" to the top of her horns. Her skin is a light and bright green hue, with four bright green eyes that emit a faint glow. Her hair, as well as the fur beneath her waist like most Calatians, is black. In addition, her ears are pointed, and her head is topped with a crown of eight short horns. Her legs are digitigrade and end in caprine-esque hooves, while her tail is long, tapering, tipped with a silver marking, and equipped with a retractable stinger. Like most Calatians, she has spiracles on her stomach and four arms as well as a second (if smaller) set of breasts. However, unlike most Calatians, Aerith has augmented herself with more efficient muscles, a stronger skeleton, and a tougher skin using her shapeshifting abilities to copy DNA from other species. That being said, it is no secret Aerith is an accomplished shapeshifter and could possibly be considered one of the best in her species' known history. Personality On the surface, almost a century of war and fighting has worn Aerith down to a cold and apparently emotionless tactician capable of tearing an enemy's heart out without flinching. However despite this outward appearance, she's a lot more expressive and somewhat friendly when it comes to her friends, family, and in some cases her own troops. Trivia * Her hypothetical voice actress is Laura Bailey * She has a female romantic preference